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43 ratings | 12 reviews | avg rating:5.00

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Barbara Garay

Goodreads Author

Born

Vilnius, Lithuania

Genre

Poetry

Influences

Rainier Marie Rilke, Friedrich Nietzsche, Simone de Beauvoir, Sartre, ...more

Member Since

February 2019

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Barbara Garay was born in Vilnius, Lithuania when it was still part of the Soviet Bloc. She immigrated to America when she was six years old and has remained here ever since. Her poetry explores themes of loss, displacement, healing, trauma, pain, love, passion, introspection, and philosophy. Creative expression has always been a way to cope with early childhood trauma. She is passionate about history and philosophy and completed her baccalaureate studies in both at Loyola University Chicago.

You can buy her debut poetry book, "Beneath the Surface" on amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/css/order-h... ...more

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Barbara Garay’s books

Average rating: 4.86 · 7 ratings · 6 reviews · 1 distinct work

Beneath the Surface: A Book of Poems

4.86 avg rating — 7 ratings — 2 editions

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5 posts
Barbara Garay's Blog

Embracing the struggle

It is our struggles that open our eyes, that take us to a place of overcoming, of learning, of flying. Embrace the struggle and persist through it, and most importantly, learn through it. Only by holding the lessons it teaches can the struggle ever be something beautiful and meaningful to our lives.

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Published on October 11, 2018 17:14

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Barbara is Currently Reading

Barbara Garay is currently reading

Brave New World

by Aldous Huxley

bookshelves: currently-reading

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Oct 09, 2026 06:40PM

Barbara Garay is currently reading

Paradise Lost

by John Milton

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Aug 23, 2026 10:06PM

Barbara Garay is currently reading

The Last Letter

by Rebecca Yarros (Goodreads Author)

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Mar 10, 2026 06:28PM

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Barbara’s Recent Updates

Barbara Garay is currently reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Oct 09, 2026 06:40PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Brave New World by Aldous Huxley <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Barbara Garay rated a book it was amazing The Testaments (The Handmaid's Tale, #2) by Margaret Atwood (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Sep 27, 2026 07:31PM · like
Barbara Garay liked Dean's review of The Silo Saga Omnibus (Silo, #1-3):
Sep 16, 2026 04:21PM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Silo Saga Omnibus by Hugh Howey. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Silo Saga Omnibus by Hugh Howey <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Barbara Garay is currently reading Paradise Lost by John Milton	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Aug 23, 2026 10:06PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Paradise Lost by John Milton. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Paradise Lost by John Milton <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Barbara Garay rated a book it was amazing Fourth Wing (The Empyrean, #1) by Rebecca Yarros (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jul 28, 2026 07:51PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Barbara Garay rated a book it was amazing Iron Flame (The Empyrean, #2) by Rebecca Yarros (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jul 28, 2026 07:50PM · like
Barbara Garay is now following Rebecca Yarros Author of Fourth Wing (The Empyrean, #1)
Jul 28, 2026 07:47PM · like
Barbara Garay finished reading Hellraiser Vol. 1 by Clive Barker (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Mar 10, 2026 06:41PM · like
Barbara Garay is currently reading The Last Letter by Rebecca Yarros (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Mar 10, 2026 06:28PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Last Letter by Rebecca Yarros. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Last Letter by Rebecca Yarros <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Barbara Garay rated a book it was amazing Onyx Storm (The Empyrean, #3) by Rebecca Yarros (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Mar 09, 2026 03:55PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">

More of Barbara's books…

Quotes by Barbara Garay (?)

“In time,
everyone fades away,
transfiguring into
echoes that latch
onto our memories
and bleed our hearts dry.”
― Barbara Garay, Beneath the Surface: A Book of Poems

tags: bleeding-heart, bleeding-hearts, echoes, loss-of-love, loss-quotes, memories, temporality

3 likes

“We are bound
to memories,
to a past,
even to those full
of all that is aghast,
and yet, we must
conjure up
enough strength
to live beside
our ghosts,
unafraid."

- Barbara Garay, "Beneath the Surface: A book of poems.”
― Barbara Garay, Beneath the Surface: A Book of Poems

tags: empowerment, facing-the-past, ghosts, memories-strength, painful-past, past, unafraid

2 likes

Barbara’s Quotes

“In time,
everyone fades away,
transfiguring into
echoes that latch
onto our memories
and bleed our hearts dry.”
― Barbara Garay, Beneath the Surface: A Book of Poems

tags: bleeding-heart, bleeding-hearts, echoes, loss-of-love, loss-quotes, memories, temporality

3 likes

tags: empowerment, facing-the-past, ghosts, memories-strength, painful-past, past, unafraid

2 likes

“When the rich wage war it's the poor who die.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, Le diable et le bon dieu

tags: class-struggle, war

1198 likes

recent posts
Barbara’s Groups

¡ POETRY ! — 22487 members — last activity Oct 07, 2026 06:07PM
No pretensions: just poetry. Stop by, recommend books, offer up poems (excerpted), tempt us, taunt us, tell us what to read and where to go (to read No pretensions: just poetry. Stop by, recommend books, offer up poems (excerpted), tempt us, taunt us, tell us what to read and where to go (to read it!) Goodreads honors wordsmiths: poets and poetry promoted and prompted here. ~~~ "Poetry is the synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits." -- Carl Sandburg “God has a brown voice, as soft and full as beer.” —Anne Sexton On Clouds – “…what primitive tastes the ancients must have had if their poets were inspired by those absurd, untidy clumps of mist, idiotically jostling one another about…” —Yevgeny Zamyatin “If the poet wants to be a poet, the poet must force the poet to revise. If the poet doesn’t wish to revise, let the poet abandon poetry and take up stamp-collecting or real estate.” —Donald Hall “Poetry is a rich, full-bodied whistle, cracked ice crunching in pails, the night that numbs the leaf, the duel of two nightingales, the sweet pea that has run wild, Creation’s tears in shoulder blades.” —Boris Pasternak “Wanted: a needle swift enough to sew this poem into a blanket.” —Charles Simic “Language is a cracked kettle on which we beat out tunes for bears to dance to, while all the time we long to move the stars to pity.” —Gustave Flaubert “Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It’s that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that’s what the poet does.” —Allen Ginsberg. ~~~~~ Amy King, Moderator Amy King is the recipient of the 2015 Winner of the WNBA Award (Women’s National Book Association). Her latest collection, The Missing Museum, is a winner of the 2015 Tarpaulin Sky Book Prize. She serves on the executive board of VIDA: Women in Literary Arts and is co-editing with Heidi Lynn Staples the anthology, Big Energy Poets of the Anthropocene: When Ecopoets Think Climate Change. She is also co-editing the anthology, Bettering American Poetry 2015, and is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at SUNY Nassau Community College. ...more

Goodreads Reviewers' Group — 14119 members — last activity 14 minutes ago
This group helps to bring Reviewers and Authors together! Reviewers can make their own thread to post their reviews in, or post their reviews in the r ...more

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Barbara Garay’s Followers (2)

Barbara Garay

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